Is it worth running Kara week in week out, hitting every daily heroic to pickup the badges to buy the gear to run the raids that had the gear that isn’t as good as the gear you just bought with your badges?

Or, if you are like me and so many others, is it worth busting a gut (yeah Taurens get two) to get the badge gear so you can run the 10 man raids, or heroic instances (maybe saving 5 minutes and a wipe off the run)?

Is it worth the PvP vs. PvE rants about who deserves the gear, and if so what level of effort should be required to overuber the epeen?

I don’t know the answers I must admit (Much better at asking stupid questions than providing intelligent answers), but I must admit I feel like a rat (although some rats are bigger) on the proverbial Blizzard treadmill.

I want the gear, don’t get me wrong

I want the gear, don’t get me wrong. I am prepared to pore over spreadsheets and theory crafting forums for hours, but I don’t need the gear – theoretically I am already geared past my current (and most likely future) progression point.

In fact I wonder whether my efforts to do uber dps are becoming a constraint – am I out gearing our part-time tank? is being able to go all out for 30 seconds, then nick off to make a coffee while my aggro drops back below the tank, a limitation rather than an advantage?

I begin to wonder now, while others ponder preparations for WoLK (links below), whether I would be better off adopting a more casual attitude to go with my casual play times. Maybe spend 1-2 hours thinking about WoW outside of the game, rather than spending the rest of the week on it.

It occurred to me while reading about other’s WoLK preparations that (assuming it is released anywhere from Nov-Jan) I will be overseas, backpacking my Wife and Son around India. So even when I do return to WoW (and find the post-trip money to buy the expansion), I will potentially be 2 months behind my mates in gathering gear, reputation, levels, instances and raids.

What will my badge, honor and reputation gear grinding have amounted to then? Nothing!?!

I might as well spend the next few months grinding the Auction House

I might as well spend the next few months grinding the Auction House, so I can afford to buy myself a new set of gear every level, upgrade my enchanting and tailoring to level 450 (or whatever it is). buy my new (but for everyone else passe) mount(s).

I guess in reality, as long as I enjoy the methods for collecting the loot (or loot currency), I might as well keep on playing. Not for the loot, but for the experience – a less Loot-Whoring, more Fun-Whoring attitude.

How do you feel about this? If Blizzard released a new set of “T6″ equivalent gear tomorrow, for little more than the current badge cost – would you hardcore badge collect, or just make do until the 1st set of WoLK T7 gear comes to the market?

On a side note, does anyone know if the current badges + honor will have any value in WoLK? Would someone be better off hoarding badges for the release, or will Blizzard introduce a new loot currency. eg: platinum ice shards?

Tell me please..

Time to relax, or rev up?

Time to change forms to a squirrel, or though my not-considerable gnome weight (and wealth) about?

Gnomer and Out!

Other People preparing for WoLK (or not) (OK I haven’t read all these… didn’t realise there were so many until right now):

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7 Responses

Lovely post!
It’s time to relax and enjoy – as it ALWAYS is! Goddamn it! Why on earht should you skip fun raiding encounters just because the gear may get outdated… ? I don’t get it! This is entertainment and joy and fun, not a job. If you chose to grind instead of doing what’s fun you condemn yourself to boredom for an unknown amount of time. Don’t do that.

I know painfully well what you mean by too good gear. For me the solution was speccing arcane instead of fire. Much less of a problem those days.

Finally: that trip sounds just awesome! Enjoy it and just don’t think about if you’ll get behind others. MInd you, I myself started to play in february last year. From scratch, with no knowledge of the game at all, didn’t know a person in the game. I began from the beginnign. I was MORE than 60 levels behind everyone else, trust me. Today I’m raiding T5 instances. OK it’s not the cutting edge, but I don’t complain. What I’m trying to say is that you’ll catch up. Don’t worry.

For me its about when the time spent does not return enough of a reward. My Warlock is well geared, and needs the odd tweak here and there, but is basically set for the expansion.

My Paladin needs some upgrades, and I’ll continue to work on those. But that leave me with time online to so something else; so I rolled a Druid.

I don’t think its about getting the next T? drop; its about the best way to gain an advantage till you’re happy.

But I suppose you also have to consider the opportunistic nature of gear; meaning that you might still have a lot of upgrades to get, but you’ll never practically be able to do those runs. So don’t sweat it. Make new goals and play on.

In any case, I’ve seen it time and time again that the people who play for the gear are the ones that don’t last in guilds that have the capability of getting that gear.

So long as what I’m wearing keeps up with the content, I don’t really care what it looks like.

In reality two months won’t be much of a handicap. In fact in some ways it will be a benefit – the economy will have re-stabilised and you won’t be paying 20G for a stack of frostweave cloth (for example). Most guilds I know had barely started raiding kara after that time – ample time to level up and join your mates. Honor might well be worth stockpiling though.

My own approach to the expansion will be the same as the previous one – to ignore it until the day it’s released.

I must say writing this post was quite cathartic. Had fun on Friday for the sake of having fun. Logged off without worrying about uploading character stats for future review.. couldn’t tell you how many badges I have saved up…

I to feel this way. For now I just PvP and save arena points and honor. My full s3 set should get me pretty far when it comes to everything else. Hopefully the Arena system and points will carry over to WotLK. If not i’ll just buy whatever the gear is at the time with it and go from there.